


Butterflies

by LoveChilde



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Dark, Dysfunctional Family, Gen, Hair Braiding, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, Pre-Canon, Sisters, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:47:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23025769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveChilde/pseuds/LoveChilde
Summary: Allison has long frizzy hair that she can't do anything with. Vanya has straight, well-behaved hair. Vanya isn't special; she doesn't need to train. She likes to be included. So every now and then, she lets Allison play.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves
Kudos: 36
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	Butterflies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Creature_Ariel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Creature_Ariel/gifts).



> Happy second day!
> 
> This one came out Dark, unexpectedly. My apologies if it's not quite in the holiday spirit. Also, I have zero familiarity with the comics so working mostly off the show, here.

They’re eleven years old. They think. They’ve chosen themselves names from books and the newspaper. 

Allison loves flashy, fancy things, like make up and glitter and hair ties. She loves putting on displays and trying out styles from magazines, when they have time between training and hero-ing. Allison is big and strong and can Rumor, and she has big frizzy hair that she can’t do much with.

Vanya loves being noticed by her siblings. She loves quiet, and peace, and not being hurt. She isn’t special like them, so she doesn’t train. She likes being included in the family even though she’s not special. Vanya is youngest and smallest and weakest, and has long, straight, well behaved hair. 

“Vanya, can I?”

It’s nice when she asks.

“Sure.”

Vanya doesn’t even look at what Allison has prepared this time. She only does this every few weeks, when they have time. When no one is robbing banks, and they have no media commitments and Father is away, so the siblings can play. It almost never hurts, and she only ended up with blue-green hair once. Grace had fixed it for them then. 

Allison starts combing, pulling, tugging, tying. Her fingers busy in Vanya’s hair, on her scalp. She likes that. Soon, the others drift into Vanya’s room. She likes that too. 

Vanya knows that Klaus would let Allison play with his hair, too, if he had it longer. But Father doesn’t allow the boys long hair. It doesn’t look respectable. He sits and watches. The others come and go, some stay for a few minutes, others drift out. They don’t have long.

“There, do you like it?”

Allison turns Vanya to face the mirror. Her hair is a tower of braids and twists, adorned with a dozen tiny butterfly-shaped clips and strands of fake pearl beads, all in pink and white. It’s elaborate, and Vanya thinks in a distant way that on a special girl, a pretty girl, it might look good. On her, though…

“Overdone.” Klaus’ verdict is cutting, but not aimed at Vanya. “Come on, Three, we gotta go. Training dummies to hit, obstacle courses to run through.” He only calls them by their numbers now when he’s trying to annoy them. Seeing as she’s Three and he’s only Four, Allison doesn’t mind it usually.

“I have to go.” She pats Vanya’s shoulder. “You can undo all this yourself, right?” 

Vanya can’t, actually. Her fingers aren’t as quick as Allison’s and she can’t reach behind her head. She doesn’t even try. She sits there dully, staring at the wall, until Grace comes and quickly, neatly, tugs and unties and combs through the now freed hair, pulling it back in a simple braid. 

“There we go. Nice and neat for your father.”

Father never looks at her. Why does it matter how she looks? “It looked nice for Allison.”

“Honey, Three doesn’t matter. Only your father matters.”

Grace leaves her, and Vanya is alone again, her mind a comfortable numb blankness. But she remembers being included, and noticed, and touched. 

Vanya smiles.

[](https://www.mediafire.com/convkey/8356/jxvx7agjsiz9awazg.jpg)


End file.
